Putting a BBS on the Air: Microsocial Media Comes to Meshtastic

In the 1980s and 1990s, online communities formed around tiny digital oases called bulletin-board systems. Often run out of people's homes and accessible by only one or two people at a time via dial-up modems, these BBSs let people exchange public and private messages, play games, and share files using simple menus and a text-based interface. Today, there is an uptick in interest in BBSs as a way to create idiosyncratic digital spaces away from the glare of large social-media platforms like Facebook, X, and Bluesky. Today's BBSs are typically accessed over the Internet, rather than dial-up connections. But their old standalone mojo is possible thanks to one of the hottest new radio technologies: Meshtastic.